Archive

July 2016

ACEEE recently released Lifting the High Energy Burden in America’s Largest Cities, a report highlighting the financial burden energy costs can place on households in cities across the United States. The analysis found that the overwhelming majority of low-income households and households of color experience higher-than-average energy burdens.

If you spend any time with the energy efficiency crowd, you will often hear us call it the lowest cost energy resource out there. What you will never hear us say is that energy efficiency is free. Efficiency can do many great things: It saves money, cuts pollution, increases productivity, and creates jobs. What it can’t do is defy one of the fundamental laws that governs all investments—it takes money to make money.

Federal and California agencies’ Technical Assessment Report (TAR) released today is the first step in the mandatory “midterm review” of fuel economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks in model years 2022-2025. The review will be key to maintaining progress toward far cleaner and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks under landmark standards adopted in 2012.

One of the distinctions we often make between energy and energy efficiency is that energy acts more like a cost, and energy efficiency acts more like an investment. Like most investments, energy efficiency works by using an up front expense to generate a stream of economic benefits. Every year, our Energy Efficiency Finance Forum conference looks at ways to manage these up-front costs and how to use that stream of benefits to turn energy efficiency into a viable investment market.

ACEEE and many others have noted the importance of the nexus between energy and water issues. Energy is used to move, treat, and heat water. Water is vital for producing energy, such as for cooling electric generating plants. Insufficient water availability can increase energy use for pumping and decrease energy production. Flooding can damage both energy and water systems. And there are many opportunities to promote both energy and water efficiency at the same time.

How is energy efficiency connected to community resilience? We answered that question in a report last year, Enhancing Community Resilience through Energy Efficiency. The report found that energy efficiency should be a core resilience strategy because it strengthens energy systems and the communities they serve by providing more reliable and affordable energy.

Data recently released as part of the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) highlights changes in commercial sector energy demand between 2003 and 2012. The Energy Information Administration conducts CBECS approximately every five years, and examines in depth a nationally representative sample of thousands of commercial buildings. Overall, energy use per square foot of floor area is down by 12%.

ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency
in Buildings - Papers

Overview / Mission

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, acts as a catalyst to advance energy efficiency policies, programs, technologies, investments, and behaviors. We believe that the United States can harness the full potential of energy efficiency to achieve greater economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection for all its people.